Aprendizas de maestras. Primeras maestras tituladas en Canarias (España)

Female teacher apprentices. The first qualified female teachers in the Canary Islands

Abstract

In Spain, in the first decades of the 19th century, the national education system was organized. With the evolution of this process, the administrative and academic order was consolidated, with the creation of different institutions at the state and provincial level; among them, the Normal Schools for the training of female teachers. This article analyzes the initial training of female teachers in the Canary Islands, identifying with names and surnames the first qualified teachers in the 19th century. The Public Instruction Law (1857) recommended establishing centers for their training, however, in the Canary Islands a Normal School for Female Teachers was not established until the beginning of the 20th century. The students learned to teach from practice, with other teachers who taught them the trade. The first qualified female teachers in the Canary Islands were through the free education regime at the Normal School of Teachers of Las Palmas or La Laguna.